"We should go on vacation to Seattle next year. I'd love to get back to the East coast again."

#wifequotes

1. Survivor SeriesI'll keep this short since I'm sure most of you are here to read about the Bollmeyer-Eslick Pop-A-Shot Showdown or the debut of this year's Popcorn Power Rankings. But an incredibly fun Survivor Series last night from WWE.

I hope WWE continues to take a cue from last night and makes their PPVs feel like a separate event from their regular television programming. Due to the RAW vs. SmackDown format last night, Survivor Series felt like it's own separate event and not just a continuation of WWE programming that many of their PPVs feel like when watching. This felt different, this felt special. Weeks long of build that culminated at this event and then we will move on to something new tonight. Too many times WWE PPVs feel like a longer RAW or SmackDown with less commercials. This felt like its own entity, which was great.

Now I do wish there were some stakes attached to the RAW vs SmackDown concept, other than "brand supremecy". I feel like that was the fatal flaw of the night that they were wrestling each other but ultimately, nothing was on the line. Maybe if the winner got the main event slot at WrestleMania or a couple roster call-ups from NXT tomorrow then it could have felt bigger. But its wrestling, I can suspend my disbelief while watching...that's part of the deal. But to throw a couple dream matches together (AJ/Brock, Charlotte/Bliss, Sheild/New Day) without having some real build to them and not having real stakes on the line was a little disheartening. But still really fun.

2. Popcorn Power Rankings​High School Basketball Season is officially here.

Which means we can finally start getting some names and schools down on the 2017-2018 Popcorn Power Rankings. After a sparkling postseason debut in 2017, I'm excited to get a full season of Popcorn Power Rankings this season.

I'll get the popcorn at each school I go to this year and rank their popcorn accordingly to give you a sense of where the best popcorn at high school gymnasiums across Central Iowa is located. Rankings will be determined by taste, price, and overall presentation. That's right West Central Valley and your $2 popcorn, price is important.

If you have any recommendations of schools with outstanding popcorn, send them my way and I'll try my best to get there this year. I'll be primarily stationed in the Heart of Iowa Conference this year while I lead my North Polk freshmen girls through the season but I'm up for some roadtrips if it means finding some quality popcorn.

So the first stop on the Popcorn Tour, so consequently the top spot on the Power Rankings for now, was Newton High School

POPCORN POWER RANKINGS1. Newton

Good news Newton: You are currently sitting at the top of the Popcorn Power Rankings.Bad news Newton: I'm not sure how long you'll be there.

Not a bad popcorn by any means but for $1.50 I not more than "not bad". Not overly fresh and not nearly enough butter. It did come in one of those old fashioned, red boxes that you used to see. You don't see them as much any more so that was a nice touch. But for $1.50 it felt like I was paying an extra 50 cents for the box, not the better popcorn. Readers of last year's Popcorn Power Rankings know that if you are charging more than $1 for your popcorn you better be bringing something big to the table. Not sure that was the case in Newton.

So a good effort. A solid popcorn. But hard to envision Newton ending the year in the #1 spot.

3. Pop-a-Shot​"What if I told you, that the glory days could be relived in the back of Pizza Ranch arcade room?"

Now while I don't think ESPN will actually put out a "30 For 30" on yesterday's impromptu Pop-A-Shot showdown, if it they I'm sure that would be the lead in.

Sometimes you don't have to try to find magic, the magic just finds you.

Mitch Eslick and Alex Bollmeyer weren't looking to put on a show on Sunday when they walked into that Ankeny Pizza Ranch. They were looking to celebrate Grandma Helen's 89th Birthday, eat an unhealthy amount of pizza and cactus bread, and break down the current tailspin of the Iowa football program. At least that was my plan going into the day, I'm not sure about Mitch. Luckily for me, my wife took care of all the Hawkeye trolling and allowed me to focus on the Grandma Helen and the cactus bread.

But then two $1 bills were pulled from Uncle Gary's pocket and the stage was set.

"Mitch, Alex....you two, one game of Pop-A-Shot."

And just like that, a showdown was a foot.

Some details had to be taken care of first. Primarily, kicking two 4 or 5 year olds off the machine and sending them somewhere else in the arcade. One kid thought it was only a quarter to play and couldn't figure out why the balls weren't coming. So we booted him to the Skee-ball machine, picked our sides, put our money in, and waited for those flat Spalding balls to roll down the ramp.

And just like that, the Bollmeyer-Eslick basketball rivalry was renewed. It had been over 20 years since we have faced off against one another in the basketball arena. Not since my 6th grade basketball team took Eslick's 4th grade team to the woodshed in the Southeast Webster gym had our paths crossed. Mitch played his high school ball in the CIML and I played mine in the slightly smaller, but equally competitive, North Star Conference. I took the JuCo route for basketball after high school and Mitch went the NAIA route. Even now as coaches, Mitch is a part of the IAHSAA and I'm a part of the IGHSAU. Like Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Two great icons of their sport who never crossed paths in their primes.

But on that Pop-A-Shot machine on in Ankeny, on a Sunday afternoon in 2017, the world would get a glimpse of what could have been.

The perfect spot for these two athletes. In front of basketball hoops with an endless supply of basketball at their disposal. It was almost like this Pop-A-Shot game was made for these two knock-down shooters who never saw a pass they would like to make. For two basketball players who in their day, if you had called them "defensively challenged" it would have probably been considered generous.

I'll save you most of the details for the first 2 1/2 rounds and let you go straight to the final 20-30 seconds, because that's where heroes are made. I'll just say that Mitch was leading after the first minute. Both of us thought the game was only one round and were not mentally, and definitely not physically, ready for Round 2. Cardio was not on full display after Round 1 and after a pizza count in the double digits from thirty minutes prior, again at least on my end. The Health/PE teacher can speak from himself on his pizza intake. But I was able to bounce back and take a slight lead heading into the final round, Round 3....largely in part to my waving Defender hand being broken and not deflecting any of my shots like they were on Eslick's end of the court.

So that takes us to here and some grainy cell phone footage from Aunt Jackie's phone. We weren't able to get any footage to the public for that historic Dream Team scrimmage from Monte Carlo in 1992. We were lucky enough to get footage from this historic event though.

The crowd was gathered. The balls were flying. The nets were burning. Here's how it played out:

Eslick 244, Bollmeyer 239.

I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. Sometimes the better man wins.

And sometimes the slightly less better man catches on fire and pulls the upset. I won't say which situation occurred here yesterday but I will say after taking breaking down that game film multiple times and looking at the stats I would be shocked if this story wasn't told on the Moonlight Graham Show in the near future.

By my count, the first score I could see on that video was Bollmeyer 200 - Eslick 191. From that point forward, Mitch went 19 of 23 from the field.

NINETEEN OF TWENTY-THREE!!!!!

That's over 82 percent. At the end of the game. With the lights shining and money on the table during Winning Time, Mitch stepped up. That's a big time performance there from Eslick. I have only seen him get that hot twice in my life. The first time was in a Mason City gym in the Substate Finals and taking his team to state by going roughly 32 of 33 from the free throw line. I'm not sure if those stats are accurate but I guarantee they are close. The second time was in a Drake University fieldhouse gym for the Iowa Games when Mitch put up 40 on a UNI Panthers team. They ultimately beat us but Mitch was the best player on the floor. Part of that was due to Eric Coleman, their best player, getting ejected from the tournament in a previous game for dunking too often. But regardless, with D1 players on the court it was the soon-to-be Wartburg freshman that was putting on a show. I'm not sure if John Little ever recovered from the workout Eslick gave him that day.

And Mitch got back to that zone yesterday in the Pizza Ranch arcade room. He dominated the Pop-A-Shot, I dominated the buffet line. But it's not like I'm hanging my head today. After breaking down that film, after my 200-191 lead I still shot 14-22. That's over 60%. On most days, that's good enough to win.

But legends are born on "most days". This was a day that will live in infamy and be talked about for years at future Miller Family functions.

1. BadgersI'm nervous for this Wisconsin game on Saturday against Michigan. Either I'm being paranoid or it seems like the perfect storm for a Wolverine upset.

I always tell my basketball teams one of the toughest things for a defense to do is guard two things consecutively. It's "easy" to defend one action but it's difficult to defend one thing and then immediately defend something else. I've always thought it's difficult for teams to defend the "and then....". For most teams, defending a ball screen isn't tough. But if it's a ball screen and then the screener runs off a flare screen? More challenging. It's human nature to let up after completing that first action. It takes something hard work and effort to tie two consecutive tasks together. Defending a ball-side cut after a pass isn't too tough but if you have to defend on a ball-side cut and then help against a post entry pass.....more challenging. Then again, my lifetime Varsity coaching record is 1-20 so what the hell do I know.

But this feels like the "and then..." game for the Badgers.

Wisconsin has had their two home games in November circled on the calendar all season. The hope was that Wisconsin could get through their first 9 games with a fairly easy schedule undefeated, and head into those home match-ups 9-0. You never know what happens in a season but that seemed possible heading into the season with the talent on the Badgers team this year. And they did. 9-0 heading into the home matchup against Iowa.

And the Iowa game went as planned. Even better than planned. It was a dominating performance. 10-0. Clinched the Big Ten West. Assured themselves a spot in the Big Ten Championship. Moved all the way up to #5 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Almost guaranteed themselves a spot in the Playoffs if they win out. For the first time all season, you can kind of feel the fan base starting to look ahead at the finish line a little bit. Hopes are really starting to rise.

And then....Michigan comes to town.

Wisconsin took care of the first part of the home slate. Can they finish off the job with the second part?

Is it just me or has Michigan kind of been under the radar most of this season. Granted that's mostly in part to them not having a good win this year but it feels like they could be a sleeping giant. This was suppose to be "The Game" on Wisconsin's soft schedule but it almost feels like the Badgers should roll. It doesn't feel, at least to me, that the hype is all the way there yet. And I know College Game Day is going to be in Madison but it just feels off to me.

And maybe this is just me getting anxious now that we are at that big game. Anxious that this is that biggest test of the year so far for Bucky. There's a rivalry game next week to take care of but this seems like the barrier between Wisconsin and 12-0. I hope the "and then...." doesn't bite them.

2. Survivor SeriesI know I go overboard sometimes on my WWE hyperbole sometime, but honestly this is one of the best lineups for a non-WrestleMania pay-per-view in years.

Survivor Series has lost it's luster as one of the "Big Four" PPVs over the past decade but WWE has been trying to shake that label for a couple years now and really put on a card this year. An impressive lineup if there ever was one:

That's two legitimate dream matches for wrestling fans in Lesnar/Styles and Shield/New Day. Add in the women's Champion vs. Champion match that is a WrestleMania worthy match and the top of the card is stacked. STACKED.

And that's before you even get to the two other champions vs. champions matches and the two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches.

Just look at the rosters on the men's side alone for the Survivor Series match

That's some star power folks. And on top of all of this on Sunday, you have the return of WarGames on Saturday night at NXT Takeover. I always tell non-wrestling fans that if you are wanting to jump into the product or back into wrestling, then the Royal Rumble is the time to do it. It's a fun event every year and leads into WrestleMania season when WWE always produces their best content. But if you don't want to wait another 2 months then this is as good a time as any. Sign up for the one month free preview of the WWE Network and watch this PPV and get hooked. You won't regret it.

3. Quick HittersThought there were a lot of things that could have filled this last section. Just gonna throw them all into one here with the Quick Hitters. ​

Mike and Mike in the Morning comes to an end today. Really loved that show about 3-5 years ago but not sure I've watched in the past 3 years more than two times. Not sure if the show ran out of steam or I grew out of it. But felt like it was a show that was a little ahead of it's time at first and now maybe a little behind the times. Hell of a run though.

Good to see the Cyclones get back on track with a win last night in that Puerto Rico Challenge or whatever they are playing in. Didn't get to see any of the game but a win is a win at this point in the season for this team. I don't care if it was against Appalachian State, can't take wins for granted this year.

I know time heals all wounds but let's not forget that fact that Iowa only had 66 yards of total offense against the Badgers last Saturday. Great game plan Brian Ferentz!

The North Polk Comet girls basketball season kick off tonight. Comets vs. Carlisle at Newton. 5:00PM. Then back to Newton again tomorrow to face Newton.

As an Iowa Central alum, thought this was a fantastic article about their head football coach Kevin Twait as he retires. He really built that program to a hell of a standard while I was at Iowa Central. I never had much interactions with Coach Twait but he was always kind to me during the few I had with him and always struck me as a great guy and a great family.

If there are four better teams in the Big Ten this basketball season than Wisconsin, the Big Ten is going to be TOUGH this year.

1. Wisconsin​At least you'll always have the Ohio State game Hawkeye fans.

That was a dismantling. I believe Iowa fans coined the phrase "Woodshed, IA 52242" last week. Well change the state and zip code if you want but Saturday's game was the same. And as much as I want to, I'm not going to talk a lot about that game and rub it in to Hawkeyes fans because the game spoke enough for me. Part of me wanted to devote all three sections of today's Three Count to this game but I'm going to stick to just one. And honestly, it's not like Wisconsin played terrifically well either, at least on the offensive end, so it's not like I have a lot of room to brag about the Badgers. That was just a case of one team being better than the other this season, combined with the fact that it was played at the better team's stadium.

I texted a Badger buddy of mine after the first quarter and told him Iowa wasn't going to score an offensive touchdown in that game. Through 15 minutes, that looked painfully obvious. I wouldn't have bet my life on that by any means because it's still sports and 18-22 year old kids out there playing but after one quarter of play Iowa not scoring an Offensive TD seemed much more likely than them figuring out a way to find the end zone through Wisconsin's defense.

That game reminded me of a Varsity team playing against their JV team, if the Varsity had been out all night partying and game into the game with hangovers. The Varsity were clearly better but struggled to find their groove early and let the JV hang around. Once push came to shove though, the Varsity impaired their will and dominated the JV.

Jonathon Tayler, Wisconsin's running back, had more yards after contact on his runs (94) than Iowa had of entire total offense (66). Now I know the yards after contact stats can be a bit misleading. Just because someone "contacts" the runner doesn't mean they were in any position to tackle him but that's still a damning stat for Iowa and their offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

66 Total Yards of offense.5 First Downs0 Offensive Points

Remember those stats when Brian Ferentz starts running his mouth to the media again next offseason trying to seem tough like he did last offseason.

2. CyclonesHell of an effort the past two weekends from the Cyclones. I was not shy about my concerns for the Matt Campbell Era coming into the season but I'd be lying if I said I was anything but impressed with what he's done this year in Ames. The next two weeks are still imperative, obviously, but even a split of those two games puts them at 7-5. That's quite the season. And he had his team legitimately contending for a Big 12 Championship in November. That hasn't happened for Cyclone Nation in ages.

And I've actually been more impressed with what the Cyclones have built in the past two weeks than I was with their wins over Oklahoma and TCU. The past two weeks saw the Cyclones face some legitimate adversity and keep battling. That's the sign of a good team, in my eyes. That Oklahoma game was a whirlwind and a shocking upset, I can see how they ride that emotion to a win. Even that TCU win to a point could fall under that same umbrella, it was the beginning of a great seasonal story in Ames. But the last two weeks have really tested the reserve and the fortitude of this team and they've responded.

Coming off the TCU win the Cyclones had to travel to West Virginia, a traditionally difficult place to play either football or basketball for Iowa State. And they got down 14-0 in the blink of an eye. I thought that was going to get ugly quick. But the Cyclones held the fort, battled back, and had a chance to win in the 4th quarter. That shows me something about a young team. Same type of story this week against Oklahoma State. Iowa State comes out to a quick 14-0 lead this time, only to see the Pokes come back to tie and eventually take the lead. That could be a brutal blow for some teams but Iowa State stayed resilient and battled back again. They drove the field on the last possession and had 1st and Goal to tie the game. It didn't end up the way they wanted it to (we'll talk about that play in the final point) but it impressed the hell out of me. It's easy to play hard and fight when things are going your way (Oklahoma, TCU) but it shows me more when you battle and fight when things aren't going your way (West Virginia, Oklahoma State).

Well done Matt Campbell. Well done Cyclones.

3. InterceptionUNPOPULAR IOWA STATE FAN OPINION ALERT:

That final play in the Iowa State - Oklahoma State game was definitely an interception.

​I get that Iowa State fans have been programmed to complain about officiating regardless of the situation but I was amazed with how many Cyclones fans thought that should have been an ISU touchdown. I thought at best, Iowa State fans could have hoped for it to be ruled as an incomplete pass. That possibly the Cyclones player caused enough of a disruption in the catch while the players came to the ground to call it incomplete as they rolled out of bounds. But even that seemed less and less likely with the more replays that we got. The Oklahoma State player had possession, in bounds, and it was called correctly in my opinion.

You can show me all the still photos you want that are floating around Twitter with the Cyclones player "pinning" the ball to the chest of Okie State defender, but it's not changing my opinion. The real life video that shows you everything on that play clearly shows what happened. The Okie State player caught the ball, brought it to his own chest, and controlled the ball. Along the way, the Iowa State player touched the ball while that process was happening. Interception Cowboys.

I find it hard to believe rational people can watch that play and believe it should have been ruled a Cyclones touchdown, even to the point where fans are still complaining about it.

1. Cyclones BasketballA sneaky big game for the Cyclones tonight right out of the gate as Iowa State tips off their season down in Columbia, Missouri tonight. The Cyclones face a Missouri team that should be an upper-echelon team in the SEC this year. This should not only be a big test for a new-look Cyclones team but also a big opportunity.

We'll preview the Big 12 Conference in the last spot of the Three Count today but I think the conference is going to be pretty competitive. I think it has two great teams (Kansas/West Virginia) and then a bunch of good teams. WIns are going to be hard to come by in the conference season. So if Iowa State has dreams of returning to the NCAA Tournament with their inexperienced group, they will need to pick up some non-conference wins and some signature wins to fill out their tournament resume. This game is as good of an opportunity as they are going to find this year.

Missouri should have a great season this year in the SEC. They also have a young squad with loads of talent, led by Freshmen stud Michael Porter Jr. As Missouri figures things out throughout the season and get into conference play, where wins are a little easier to come by in the SEC, they will rack up some wins. But it may take some time. Which is why if Iowa State can put a W next to Missouri on their schedule it would be the type of win you use to bolster your resume come Tournament Time. The Tigers seem like a team you'd much rather play early in the season compared to late.

I'd think Missouri ends the year in the Top 20 this season, if not higher. That should make them the best non-conference team Iowa State sees this season (It's going to shock you but I'm not that high on Iowa this year). But I don't think the Missouri team the Cyclones see tonight is a Top 20 caliber team yet. So the opportunity to "steal" a qualityy win, on the road as well, is there for the taking.

Not saying the Cyclones will actually get the win but the opportunity is there. I wasn't overly impressed with the Cyclones in their exhibition on Sunday night. Similar to Missouri, they have a lot of work to do on their end as well. And despite Terrence Lewis being reinstated to the team for this game, Cameron Lard still is not. And Hans Brase will still be out with an injury. Should be tough for a young team to travel on the road against a quality opponent and win without their full compliment of players. So it's definitely a tall task for the Cyclones tonight, but also a golden opportunity.

2. Wisconsin vs. IowaFairly important football game being played in Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow. The Heartland trophy is on the line and the Badgers have their first true test of the season. Coming into the contest with a 9-0 mark and eyes on the Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoffs, the Badgers have back-to-back home games against Iowa and Michigan standing in their way. I have made my thoughts on the University of Iowa and their sports programs fairly clear in the past....so this should be a fun one. Here's my thoughts and prediction for the game.

I think the key stat to look at on Saturday will be Wisconsin turnovers.

Zero Badger turnovers on Saturday and I think they win easily.One Badger turnover and Wisconsin wins but its close for awhile before the Badgers pull away in the 2nd half.Two Badger turnovers is when it starts to get dicey for Wisconsin. Two turnovers and the game goes either way.Three Badger turnovers and Iowa probably extends the road team winning streak in this series to seven on Saturday.

Wisconsin is the better team, playing at home....they should win. And if they play sharp football, they should win. The problem for Wisconsin, however, is they have been unable to play 4 quarters of consistent, solid football all season. Largely in part to turning the ball over too often. Whether that is fumbling from the Running Back position or their Quarterback Alex Hornibrook throwing interceptions that would make even Brett Favre shake his head.

As a Wisconsin fan, it feels like there is a gear there that this Wisconsin team should be able to get to but have been unable to reach so far this season. That could be due to inconsistent play, lack of competition, injuries, or a combination of all those things. But despite being 9-0, I don't think you'll find many Badgers fans that will tell you they've been overly impressed with the Badgers this year.

They have three games to make up for that though.

I do think the injury to their best wide receiver really hurts the Badgers in this game, and for the rest of the season. Quintez Cephus had been having a phenomenal season had emerged as a legitimate threat for the Badgers offense. Losing that weapon could mean Hornibrook may need he has to force the issue more downfield. Which is typically when he has gotten into trouble this season. So that worries me.

But.....

I don't have many rules in life. One of them, however, is this: Always Trust Vegas.

Vegas opened up the line for this game at -13.5 for Wisconsin. That's a huge number in a rivalry where games are historically decided by less than a touchdown. I thought the line would open at -8....and I even thought I might be guessing too high with Iowa coming off of their woodshedding of Ohio State last week. But Vegas opened up the line almost a touchdown higher than my initial guess.

Vegas is BEGGING you to take the Hawkeyes here. BEGGING. Which is good news for the Badgers. They have an elite defense this season. And Iowa has scored 10 points in both of their conference road games this season, at Northwestern and at Michigan State. Iowa has played well at home this season. This game isn't at Kinnick though.

Wisconsin 31, Iowa 13.

3. Big 12 PreviewWe hit the Big 10 on Wednesday, so today is the Big 12. And college basketball has officially tipped off. Good times.

In instances like these, I always try to default to the idea that "someone smarter than me knows something I don't" that lead to a particular change. I'm sure that was the case here. Twitter probably has some data that shows that this was a good move or a change that will lead to a positive impact down the road. Or Twitter was aware of some problem with the 140 character limit that I was not aware of and decided to make the change. I doubt a multi-million dollar enterprise is making drastic changes to their product on a whim.

Doesn't mean I have to like it though. Not that it's a huge change by any means. Hell, I may not even notice anything different on the site in a month or so once the initial shock wears off. Doubling the amount of content per tweet those seems odd though.

Everyone that uses Twitter has ran into that problem where you have a great tweet but can't squeeze everything in to 140 characters. So you have to fiddle with punctuation or abbreviate words to make it fit. Then you worry if the original tweet will lose some of it's luster with poor punctuation and abbreviated words. Suddenly that "great" tweet you have isn't nearly as powerful. I always assumed Twitter would not change the character limit and just stick with 140...but if it did change, that 160 characters seemed like the right fit. Still the same structure for the most part but that little extra slack you needed sometimes to fit everything in.

280 character tweets are like stepping outside in Iowa on that first cold fall morning to go to work without your jacket. You are expecting it to be that nice cool morning like the past month or two but you immediately get smacked in the face by that bitter cold wind. It's a shock. It's still that same walk outside to work but it's different. It's freezing cold outside you don't like it. Sure, you'll adjust and put a coat on eventually and you'll probably just get used to it in time. But initially, it's a jolt.

2. Ric FlairBig night for wrestling fans last night with the debut of ESPN's 30 for 30 on Ric Flair. I watched it in its entirety last night and thought it was solid. I wasn't blown away by it like I was hoping I would be but it was a very fun watch, especially for wrestling fans. Being able to re-hear his story and hear it be told from a variety of other wrestlers, throughout history, made for a great 90 minutes.

Yet, I still left the night feeling it could have been better.

I think most of that though is me talking as a wrestling fan. This 30 for 30, while definitely targeting the wrestling audience, was produced to tell Ric's story to a non-wrestling audience. ESPN told the story of the man, Richard Flehr, and his transformation into "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Sure, there was plenty of wrestling and wrestling stories, but I guess I wanted more of "The Nature Boy".

Still a great watch though, and one that I will definitely stop and rewatch whenever it's on ESPN. Just like I do whenever the Reggie Miller vs. the Knicks documentary comes on.

3. Big Ten BasketballWith college basketball season just a couple days away, it's time to get some predictions out there. We previewed the Big Ten conference here first. The Big 12 will be coming on Friday.

1. Big TenHad taken about a month off from the Three Count to recharge the batteries and everything. Figured if every sport gets an off-season then why not me too every once and a while. But holy cow after that Saturday of Big Ten football I had to get back on the keyboard. You’re welcome internet.

What a crazy day in the Big Ten. Michigan State somehow now controls it's own destiny to win the East instead of Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State. Iowa eviscerated Ohio State. Northwestern won it's third overtime game in three weeks. And Rutgers climbed to .500 in conference play. Crazy stuff. Thank goodness for Wisconsin so we can at least have some type of stability in the conference. 9-0 for Bucky heading into the final quarter stretch of regular season play.

The headline of the week in the Big Ten though was Iowa's blitzing of Ohio State. If you would have asked me heading into Saturday how many quarters it would take for Iowa to point up 55 points against Ohio State, I would have started the number at 10 quarters and probably went up from there. Iowa 55, Ohio State 24. That was an absolutely unconceivable final score. There were signs there that Ohio State may have been more smoke and mirrors than substance this year but 55-24 Saturday was an out-and-out shocker. I didn’t see that coming. I told people at work on Friday that if I was betting, I’d take the Hawkeyes and the points just since they were getting soooooooo many points at home, but in no way did I see them winning. And definitely not winning in a blowout. They housed the Buckeyes by 31 points after being a 20+ point underdog heading into that contest. I read somewhere that Iowa ended up covering that spread by over 50 points. Incredible.

And a heartfelt congratulations to Iowa fans. They were two weeks from packing up their season and getting into basketball mode. The pendulum was starting to swing back to the “Fire Kirk” side, Brian Ferentz was getting chastised in the media for his temper and poor job performance, and a bid to the Quick Lane Bowl was looking imminent. Last week, the general consensus I was seeing was that the Hawkeyes were the second best team in the state of Iowa. Now? Is it not too crazy to say they are not 2 inches on a potential tipped 4th down pass against Penn State away from being the 2nd best team in the Big Ten? Sports are crazy man.

2. LeBron​Kind of a cop out on my part for this second point here but I need to point out that LeBron James put up a stat line of 57 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists on Friday night. Not a lot to add to that but it just needed to be stated again so we don’t take those types of things for granted.

Nevermind, let me add at least a little bit to that.

LeBron James just put up a 57, 11, and 7 in his 15th season in the NBA. In a regular season games. That’s insane. I know scoring is higher in today’s NBA, our diet and health science is on another level in 2017, and all that other analytical garbage. But 57-11-7 in his 15th NBA season. Unreal.

Jordan was limping on a .500 Wizards team in his 15th season. LeBron is making a poorly put together Cavs team an NBA Finals favorite in his 15th season.

3. CyclonesWent to the Cyclones' home exhibition opener last night against Emporia State. Was excited to see the new look Cyclones after the last remaining pieces from the Hoiberg Era graduated. And it went almost exactly how you'd predict it would go with a young, inexperienced team playing in their first public appearance.

Iowa State isn't a national powerhouse where they can just instantly replace All-Americans and All-Conference players with new players and not miss much of a step. This process is going to take time. Losing Monte Morris, Naz Mitrou-Long, Matt Thomas, and Deonte Burton all in the same season is going to take it's toll.

Last night the Cyclones looked like a group that hadn't played together much and weren't sure how all their pieces meshed together yet. Also, Iowa State was not suiting in three players (Lard, Lewis, Brase) who I'd expect to get significant minutes this season due to either injury or Coach's Decision. That left the Cyclones with only 7 players suiting up last night. They slogged their way to a 77-68 win over Emporia State.

I'm excited to see how this teams builds throughout the season and what identity they form. I still don't know what type of an identity a Steve Prohm coached team has in the Big 12. The space-and-pace, shooting type players from the Hoiberg regime are all gone and Prohm now has his type of players in his type of system. Excited to see what that looks like. Talent-wise you'd think the Cyclones take a step back the next season or two until these Freshmen and incoming recruits solidify themselves. It does sound like the incoming recruiting classes from Prohm have been successful and re-enforcements are on the way. The challenge will be to speed up that process as soon as possible.

As for this year's season, I still think they can reach the NCAA Tournament this year, I don't think that's off the table. It may be unlikely and we will learn more when Lard, Lewis, and Brase see the court. We may learn that quickly as the Cyclones travel to Missouri on Friday to open up the season against what should be a talented Tigers team.

Last night that version of the Cyclones reminded me a little bit of a less talented Baylor Bears team. A lot of athletes on the floor that are long and lanky but hadn't tied the basketball skills part of the equation together yet. Not a lot of shooting on the floor and not a lot of brute size. Again, you add three more players (Lard, Lewis, Brase) to a basketball team and it completely changes the dynamic of the team so this will be completely different after Friday night I'm sure. Excited to see where this season leads.

1. Matt CampbellI'm not above admitting when I was wrong or giving someone who I've been critical of their due when they earn it. I've been hard on Matt Campbell and the Iowa State football program as a whole in recent months/years. I've called Matt Campbell the "Human Hype Machine" and accused Iowa State football's main goal at times to be "winning the offseason". I said I wouldn't believe anything or any hype that comes from Ames in the fall until results were actually produced on the field. There was hope of bowl games and .500 seasons this year but I wasn't going to buy in until results were actually shown on the field.

We got some results on Saturday; and they came in a grand fashion. I thought the bell-water game for the Cyclones was last Thursday against Texas at home in Ames. If they could win that one, in primetime, I was going to start believing a little bit. That seemed like a game that a bowl eligible team should win. When they lost that, I had 4-8 tabbed for Iowa State's final record in 2017.

Then out of nowhere, Iowa State travels to Norman without their starting quarterback and knocks off the 3rd ranked team in the nation. Unbelievable. Granted, Oklahoma has a history of losing games every year they should win. I think this was something like their 7th straight year or something like that where they have lost to a team they were favored by double digits heading into the game. Don't quote me on that but it's some crazy statistic like that that I am unable to recover right now. But they were favored by 31 points coming into their game on Saturday against the Cyclones. THIRTY ONE!!!!

So hats off to Matt Campbell, that's a big time win for him and what he is trying to build at Iowa State. On top of that, if he could pick any team in the conference to play this Saturday to build upon this momentum I would have to guess that it would be Kansas at home. That is as close to a layup win as the Cyclones can get in the Big 12. A win would put them at 4-2 on the year, a definite building block for their program.

So congratulations again to Matt Campbell and his entire staff. Maybe they are on the right track and could be leading this team in the right direction. And hell, maybe they can make a bowl game this year. I didn't believe it when the season began but I'm starting to buy into the hype again. Which as any Cyclones fan will tell you, is a terrible idea.

2. 2020 ElectionStumbled across this tweet today regarding the 2020 Presidential Election. It gives the current betting odds for who will win the 2020 Presidential Election. Now I don't know how reputable this website actually is or what type of accuracy they actually have in these types of things but I do respect the guy who tweeted the link out so I'd assume it's at least somewhat reputable. And forget about the percentages for President Trump being re-elected or who the leading candidates are for the Democratic party to run against presumably President Trump in 2020. I want to look at the people with the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th best odds right now.

I realize it's a long ways out from November 2020, a LONG WAYS out. But for those four people to be the sixth through ninth most likely candidates to win the Presidential Election in 2020 is ridiculous. It's appalling. It's disgraceful. It's embarrassing. It's a mockery.

And it makes complete sense.

After making a reality television billionaire our President in 2016 none of those options seem unlikely. This is where we are in our society in 2017. Four of the people considered most likely to win our next Presidential Election are a social media creator, a professional wrestler, a talk show host, and a former First Lady.

We, as a society, deserve what we get at this point. If this is what we consider normal for a political election for the highest office in our nation, then we deserve what we get. We got it in 2016 and we are on the way to get it again in 2020.

3. Mario KartThe big 808 Invitational is finally this weekend. Saturday, October 14th. Race times start at 5:00 PM. Feel free to come whenever you'd like, we'll have some football games on during the day and some other entertainment if you'd like. I probably won't provide much food other than snacks and appetizers and that type of stuff, so eat before you come or bring something to eat on your own if you'd like.

Providing that my trophy guy comes through in time, the winner will receive a prestigious trophy for their victory. My trophy guy wasn't sure if he could get it to me in time after giving him such short notice, but thought I would have a trophy in my hands by Saturday. So hopefully we are racing for some high stakes on Saturday night.

If you know you are coming for sure, feel free to tweet us and let us know. If not, feel free to come in on Saturday unannounced. We'll pick for pools and seedings as people arrive on Saturday.

If you have any other questions, just let us know and we'll try to answer them. If not, hope to see many of you there on Saturday night.

1. MLBI know I'm a day late in getting these predictions out but I still need to get them out. Here are my thoughts on how the MLB postseason will go.

American LeagueAstros over Red SoxYankees over Indians

Astros over YankeesNational LeagueDodgers over DiamondbacksNationals over Cubs

Nationals over Dodgers

World SeriesNationals over Astros

2. OJ SimpsonIs it just me or has OJ Simpson being realized from prison not been covered very much by the news and media the past week? I would have thought that him being realized from prison would have been a huge news story for networks to cover but I hardly heard anything about it all week. I think I heard one time that he was out golfing one day and heard one quick soundbite he gave about "nothing changing" since he's been in prison.

I mean, you can hardly go online or watch television without knowing what the Kardashian family is doing or what some other celebrities are eating or dating these days. I would have expected wall-to-wall coverage of OJ's post-prison live and movements. His trials were the biggest thing going in the media for years and was even made into successful and entertaining TV shows and documentaries. No one cares about his release now?

Not that I'm really complaining about it either, it just strikes me as odd.

3. War GamesHuge, Huge, Huge, Huge, HUGE news coming out of WWE yesterday. After years of hope, speculation, and teasing; WWE has decided to bring back the War Games match! For NXT TakeOver on November 18th, the night before the Survivor Series, WWE will bring back the War Games structure for the first War Games match in almost 20 years.

This has been a talking point for many WWE fans for years and always felt like a pipe dream. A concept that WWE was going to let lay dormant because it was a "WCW idea" and not one of their own. Glad to see this match get brought back and introduced again in the WWE. Hopefully a solid showing in NXT might get the ball rolling for this come to the main roster or, maybe it just becomes a NXT staple. I wouldn't mind seeing War Games always be apart of the NXT TakeOver show during Survivor Series weekend.

I think their may be spoilers out there already on this but I've tried to avoid them thus far, but I'm not sure who the teams will be for this. I'd assume it's a 5-on-5 match. It would make sense for it to be the new Ring of Honor crew to take on the established NXT crew but Fish, O'Reily, and Cole are only three guys. They'd have to recruit or pick up two new guys to fill out a roster. That would be the route I'd guess they go but I'm not sure you want to add to that faction already. So maybe it's just Cole vs. McIntyre for the belt at NXT TakeOver and then a separate War Games match without them.

Either way, really looking forward to this match now. I do know it's one of those matches where the idea of the match is often more enjoyable than the match itself, but I don't care. I'm all in on this.

1. Iowa StateThat Iowa State football game on Thursday night was perfect microcosm of where the football program has been at for the past five years. There was so much hype around that game heading into kickoff. This was their coming out party. A nationally televised game, coming in with a 2-1 non-conference record, against a Texas team who looked beatable. All the cards were lined up for the Cyclones to cash in on a big pot.

And then kickoff came and they laid an egg.

No two ways around it. Just like I've been saying for months now. Iowa State can #WinTheOffseason but there comes a point when you have to start winning games during the season and the Cyclones aren't at that point yet.

Maybe it was too optimistic to hope that the Cyclones could make a bowl game this year and get to at least 6-6 on the season. Maybe that step is still a year or two away. But the Human Hype Machine Matt Campbell has been pumping optimism into the program for so long now that it felt like now could be the time.

It wasn't.

2. MLB​With the Major League Baseball regular season coming to an end yesterday, it's time to take a look at how my preseason predictions went. AL East: Red SoxAL Central: IndiansAL West: Rangers

AL Wildcards: Yankees, Astros

NL East: MetsNL Central: CubsNL West: Dodgers

NL Wildcards: Nationals, Giants

ALCS: Rangers over AstrosNLCS: Mets over Cubs

World Series: New York Mets

So in the AL I hit 4 of the 5 teams and 2 of the 3 division winners.And in the NL, I hit 3 of the 5 teams and 2 of the 3 division winners.

So on that front, not too bad. My playoff predictions were god awful though. A Mets/Rangers World Series? Yikes.

I'll post my playoff predictions once the Wild Card games are completed. But give me the Yankees and Rockies to advance. Hell, even make it a two-team parlay while you're at it.

3. HawkThe end of the regular season also meant the end of another broadcasting season for Hawk Harrelson, but this season comes with a little bit more finality for Hawk than others in the past have. Yesterday was Harrelson's last game on the road that he will call for the White Sox. After 33 seasons in the broadcasting booth calling calling for the White Sox, he will continue to transition out of the booth next season. He will only call 20 home games for the White Sox next year, meaning this was his last road trip in his career.

I always loved listening to Hawk call baseball games. Growing up in Iowa, the White Sox were on WGN quite a bit as I was growing up so I'd catch a lot of games that he'd call. Often times not full games but a couple innings here and there. He was such an unabashed homer when he call Sox games. Openly rooting for his guys and his teams while on air and often ranting when the White Sox were in a slump. I'm not going to link any of those tirades but just YouTube or Google "Hawk Harrelson rant" and I'm sure it will provide you with at least an hour's worth of entertainment from some of his rants of his career.

I know he's not "officially" retired yet with his 20 games he'll call next season but yesterday felt kind of like a sendoff for him. And I know he rubs some listeners the wrong way but I was surprised he didn't get more attention and publicity yesterday, especially here locally. When Vin Scully retired, you could turn on MLB Network or Twitter without running into a sendoff for him...even for the 2-3 weeks leading into his retirement. As great as Vin way, as an Iowa kid I rarely got to hear him call a game. You hear bits and snip-its, but rarely if ever an entire game of his. But that wasn't the case for me with Hawk. I heard him many times and he just became the face, or the voice I guess, of the White Sox and WGN for me. Congrats on the career and retirement Hawk.

1. Iowa State​Huge game for the Cyclones in Ames tonight. If they have any plans of making a bowl game, and that's definitely the unofficial goal in the back of all Iowa State fans' minds, I think this game is almost a must-win. It's hard to find a route to a bowl game in their schedule without a mark in the Win column for the Texas game. We discussed this very topic in the Three Count last week, and since the Cyclones haven't played a game since that time...not much has changed.

This will be a "hope I'm wrong" type of prediction but I'll take the Longhorns tonight 30-24. I'm still in "believe it when I see it" mode for the Cyclones and we've yet to see them pull of a big win. They were close against Iowa but weren't able to finish it off. I need the Human Hype Machine Matt Campbell to actually pick up some signature wins before I buy into all the fanfare coming from Ames. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think the Cyclones pull it off tonight and ultimately miss a bowl game this season.

2. Moonlight Graham Show​Long-time readers of the Three Count know the podcast of choice to discuss around these parts is the FlyOver Sports Podcast but we have another podcast for you to try if you're so inclined. We've recently been catching up on the Moonlight Graham Show. The podcast is a basically a free-wheeling conversation with the role players, the underdogs, and guys with flat-out great stories in sports.

So it's not your PTI or Around the Horn type of podcast discussing the current events in sports but more of an interview type of show having people tell their stories. As someone who caught on to this show late, that makes it nice to be able to go back and listen to old episodes knowing the conversations and talking points won't be old news. It's just a person telling their stories of their sports career. Pretty interesting stuff.

Their guest list so far has been pretty impressive. And that might be an understatement. For a local podcast here out of Iowa, they've reeled in some big guests. Last season they had on an Olympian, an NBA player, a PGA Tour golfer, a former Cyclone, a former Hawkeye, and a wide variety of other people. And what makes the show great, in my opinion, is the guest doesn't have to be the big name like a Nick Collison or Curtis Stinson to be entertaining. Many of the episodes I've enjoyed the most are the interviews of people I've never heard of before, but the show gives me their story and makes me connect with them and what they've done in their life.

So I highly recommend you give the show a listen if you are looking for a new podcast to fill some time. You can either go back and catch up on some old episodes like I have been doing or just start fresh with their new season. They just released the first episode in Season Three with Seneca Wallace. Also announced for Season Three thus far is AJ Pierzynski, Bobby Hansen, Nick Punto, Todd Sears, and Paul Shirley.

3. Twitter 280As an avid Twitter user, the big news of the week might just be the new possibility of getting to use 280 characters in your tweets in the near future. Forget the NFL protests. Forget Hugh Hefner. Forget Carmelo and Dwayne Wade. This is the big news story of the week that should be in the headlines.

The move seems, odd.

I've always figured if the 140 character limit would change, Twitter would change it to like 160....or somewhere around that number. Everyone runs into the problem where they have the "perfect tweet" but it's 6-10 characters too long, so you have to edit and abbreviate to make it fit. But by then sometimes the flow and the wording seems off and the "perfect tweet" loses a little bit of its luster. So I figured a 10 to 20 character extension would be the move if a change was ever made.

280 seems like it's coming completely out of left-field. You're just going to double the amount of content I can put out Twitter? That's crazy. And it sends up some red flags for me.

This move makes me think it has some ulterior motives. There's no way Twitter is going to go to a 280 character limit...it would change the entire essence of Twitter. It's no longer short, quick blurbs that you can skim quick and scroll through. Changing to 280 would completely slow that down. Because you know if you give people 280 characters, they are going to use those characters. It's just the way we are.

So this can't be something Twitter is seriously considering for everybody. Is this just a publicity stunt to get people taking about Twitter and get them in the news? Or is this option only going to be given out to select businesses? Or are they giving us the 280 option now so people revolt against it and it gives Twitter more of a reason to deny a move to 150 or 160? Or is there something else going on?

I'm interested. I can't see Twitter moving to 280 but this seems like an odd move to even try. Which makes me think something else is up. Going to keep my eye on this one.

1. No MercySolid PPV outing from WWE last night at No Mercy. They had a stacked card going into the night and for the most part delivered. Some questionable booking decisions in the two main event matches to say the least, but not terrible decisions. We'll talk about those decision below but it will be interesting to see where that leads us tonight.

Reigns over Cena - I thought the move was to have Cena win, torment Reigns about that for a couple months, leave, and then come back for the rematch at WrestleMania where Reigns gets his win back on the biggest stage. They just fast-forwarded straight to that ending last night. Which again, I think is odd but not necessarily wrong. That seemed like a pretty clear "passing of the torch" moment from Cena to Reigns. If that's at a WrestleMania or SummerSlam or even Money In The Bank or Survivor Series, I don't think I bat an eye at it. It just seems weird to have it happen at a No Mercy.

I'm sure a lot of that has to due with Cena's schedule and their long-term plans for Reigns. But it did seem odd and it did seem like the end of that feud. No rematch, no second encounter, no extended feud. I'd be surprised if those two fought again in 2017.

Lesnar over Strowman - This one is a little harder for me to wrap my head around just because the one ending that I couldn't envision going into the match was Lesnar getting a clean win over Strowman. And then Lesnar got a clean win over Strowman.

I thought for all the work that WWE has done to build up Strowman as a monster, they would protect him a little more. I could see him losing but not cleanly, or not relatively easily. I would have envisioned a ring breaking or a TitanTron collapsing on him or a car falling on him or something. Him taking a 3-count in the middle of the ring just seems....again, odd.

I thought if there was going to be a clean win, it would actually be Braun winning over Brock. That would allow Brock to leave and Braun to get a run as champ. I didn't think it was likely, as I don't know how Braun as a champ really plays but I thought it was more likely than Brock pinning Braun cleanly in the middle of the ring.

I don't think it takes much for Braun to get built back up as a unstoppable monster (he's done that once already after losing to Roman Reigns at the start of the year) but I do think he's lost a little of his mystique now. Will be interesting to see where they go with Strowman. The problem is, almost anything he does now seems like a demotion after losing to Brock. Hopefully they have a plan.

And I think that's my big takeaway from last night. I think the endings to those two main event matches may have left a bad taste in some people's mouths leaving the PPV....but it does seem to me like WWE has a plan these guys. Which makes it easier for me to trust them and give them the benefit of the doubt. And to believe that their plans are better than whatever plans I have in my head. I don't think WWE gives us Roman vs. Cena and Brock vs. Braun AND has a clean ending for both without knowing exactly where they are going with it. So I'm excited to see where it leads.

2. Penn State​An absolute heartbreaker in Iowa City on Saturday......for those of us who had Penn State -12.5. How the Nittany Lions didn't cover that game, let alone almost not win it, is incredible. Over 300 more total yards than the Hawkeyes and basically a 2-to-1 time of possession advantage. A dominating performance. And they couldn't cover. Forget Ball State, this was the bad beat of the weekend.

What in the hell was Penn State trying to accomplish in the Red Zone on Saturday? The Republican party has been more effective and efficient in getting bills passed in this administration than Penn State was with their Red Zone Offense. It was was just atrocious and almost lost them the game. How many times do I have to watch Trace McSorley try to scamper for a touchdown within the 5 yard line? I can't think that's your best option.

And when they did try to give it to Barkley around the goal line it was never with a traditional handoff, it was always with that read-option look where they were reading holes and blockers and defenders. I'm not a football savant by any means but I can't see why just sticking the football in Barkley's gut immediately and telling him to run hard wouldn't work.

I want to criticize Coach Franklin as well for kicking a FG from the 1/4 yard line early in the game too, but given how poor his Red Zone Offense was maybe that was the best option. But at the time, I just don't see the point of kicking a field goal when you are less than a foot away from the end zone. That was a huge play in the game, sacrificing 4 points, that also almost cost them a win. Punch that in early and we maybe have a different ball game.

A ball game where Penn State was able to cover.

3. Thunder​How about the huge trade in the NBA this weekend? Carmelo is on his way to Oklahoma City, in exchange for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2nd round draft pick. I have some issues with the way NBA free agency takes place and the NBA salary cap structure but I'll save that for another post. For this post, I just want to look at where this puts the Thunder.

This makes them the second best team in the West right? I have them at 2 in the West behind Golden State and probably 3 or 4 overall in the NBA, right next to Boston. Obvious opinion alert coming here but there is some serious firepower now in Oklahoma City. My only disappointment over this entire ordeal is that it appears to just be a one-year arrangement. I'd assume Paul George is still on his way to Los Angeles next season, so I can't imagine Carmelo staying with the Thunder much past that either. But as a one year experiment, I love it.

This is 80% my Warriors Hate speaking and 20% actual logical thinking.....but I really think this team can challenge the Warriors in the West now. Even mark me down right now as saying if they meet in a playoff series and all participants are healthy, I'll take the Thunder in 6.

That's a pretty solid starting five that presents some issues for Golden State. I'm not sure if they have any cap space to make any additional roster moves to work on their bench but if not there are still some solid pieces there to build with. Nick Collison, Norris Cole, and Patrick Patterson are guys you can get production out of and win with. I'd like to see them add another piece or two once we get into the season if they are serious about contending for a title....which I assume they have to be with the moves they've already made.

1. No Mercy​A surprisingly great PPV coming up this weekend for WWE. No Mercy isn't generally a must-see event coming off the heels of SummerSlam but it definitely is this year. WWE has been forcing the phrase "a WrestleMania worthy match" down our throats for the past month in the build for some of these matches to the point I cringe now each time I hear it....but they aren't wrong.

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman is the match I thought was going to headline SummerSlam this year and would have no trouble drawing some viewers on a WrestleMania card. And Roman Reigns vs. John Cena is one of the big matches WWE has been keeping in their back pockets for years. It's really surprising to see them burn through both of those matches for a quote-unquote "minor" PPV. It's also a breath of fresh air.

I've been critical of WWE for awhile now on their tendency to plan so far into the future that they disregard their present. Especially coming out of WrestleMania season most years, it often feels like WWE gets into a holding pattern in the summer instead of riding some WrestleMania momentum. It's like they are in cruise control until a month before SummerSlam (like they were this year), rev it up until then, and then coast a little bit more until we start getting to Survivor Series in late November and into the Royal Rumble in January. All with a big end-goal of WrestleMania in the back of their minds.

That's a lot of dead time. It's not like the WWE is tanking during those months by any means, but you can tell the sense of urgency isn't there. That's not the case right now. WWE is throwing their best effort out for a middle of the road PPV in September. I love it. Kudos to them.

It also makes the John Cena vs. Roman Reigns match significantly more interesting. If this Reigns/Cena match was happening at WrestleMania right now, it would feel a little forced. Having it now? I'm pumped. It feels natural and like I'm getting a sneak peak at a big box office movie that shouldn't be out for a couple more months. I have no idea how it's going to go and that's when wrestling is great. I think this eventually leads to a rematch at WrestleMania anyways, but then at least there is some backstory to their feud in April and not just "they started interacting with each other in March so let's have a match in a month".

2. No MercyWith the stacked card, let's make some predictions:

WWE Cruiserweight ChampionshipNeville (c) vs. Enzo AmoreI was 100% against Enzo's move to 205 Live, but it's kinda working. I think ultimately he's too big of a star to stay there but it is a nice change of pace that also gives 205 Live a nice rub. I could see Enzo cheating to win and leading to a pissed of Neville looking for revenge for a couple months, but I think Neville keeps rolling here.Winner: Neville

Finn Balor vs. Bray WyattI feel like this is going to be Bray's abyss for the next couple years. He's going to be the guy a main eventer feuds with while he's not in a main event program. It gives that guy something compelling to do for a while and gets him a win while he waits for that next program to open up. Great for the main event in waiting guy, not so great for Bray.Winner: Finn Balor

Intercontinental ChampionshipThe Miz (c) vs. Jason JordanI think it's time to start going all in with Jordan. They gave him the big "Kurt Angle Secret" reveal and then seemed to pump the brakes a bit. Which was probably smart to get the audience acclimated to Jason since he was an NXT call-up less than a year ago and spent the rest of his time over on SmackDown. But if you are going to give him a push, then start giving him a push. Give him the IC strap here, defeat Miz in the rematch, and then move to Bray for another win. Keep putting him with relevant guys and see if he clicks with the fans.Winner: Jason Jordan

RAW Tag Team ChampionshipRollins and Ambrose (c) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus​Would seem crazy to have Rollins/Ambrose lose so quickly after reuniting and winning the championships. Just not sure where they go next if The Revival isn't ready to go. Gallows and Anderson have been wasted away to the point where I wouldn't be excited for Rollins and Ambrose to get beat up by them on a couple of occasions just to beat them on the next PPV. Winner: Rollins and Ambrose

RAW Women's ChampionshipAlexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks vs. Emma vs. BayleyThe Bayley inclusion into this match was really strange on Monday. I can't see her factoring into the final decision Sunday but I'll be interested to see if something happens in the match that leads into something else coming out of Sunday. Maybe setting the table for a Sasha/Bayley angle??? Or maybe she was just ready to go and they threw her in, who knows. Alexa pins Emma seems like the obvious choice here for the result.Winner: Alexa Bliss

John Cena vs. Roman ReignsCrazy to think that WWE is finally giving us Roman Reigns vs. John Cena and it won't be the main event. We talked enough about it above that we can keep it shorter here. I think Cena finds a way to beat Reigns, holds it over his head for a while, goes on a break to shoot a movie or a TV show or maybe just back to SmackDown for awhile, and then they eventually have a rematch at WrestleMania that Reigns wins.Winner: John Cena

Universal ChampionshipBrock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun StrowmanYou gotta think everything WWE wanted to do with their Lesnar/Goldberg program but couldn't they will try here instead with Strowman. When Lesnar wants to go, he can go. He's changed his style the past couple years to more of a powerhouse brawler but he's still an athletic specimen with an amateur wrestling background. He can do some freaky things athletically in the wrestling ring, and that seems to be the case with Strowman as well. This could get a marvellous match that we rarely get to see with guys of this size. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just not sure what Strowman does it he wins the championship. A babyface monster as champ? Who challenges him? Just doesn't fit for me. I'll take Brock.​Winner: Brock Lesnar

3. Wild Boar ChallengeAnd to wrap up, a quick update on my weekend plans. I will be Natural Athleteing this weekend in the Wild Boar Challenge in St. Charles, Iowa. Never done it before but apparently it's a 5-mile obstacle course slash mud run. Not sure what it all entails but sounds like a fun time. Here's a preview of the event from WOI Channel 5 news this morning.

1. Big BrotherNot sure I've ever actively disliked an entire season as much as I disliked the season that came to an end last night. After loving the first week, LOVING IT, the season went downhill in a hurry and never regrouped...at least in my eyes. The beginning of the season was too focused on Paul and the last half of the season lacked any real drama or intrigue, largely due to a weak and unlikeable cast.​Last night's finale, however, was definitely more exciting than most season finales...but in more of a "what in the hell is going on?" type of way. I just didn't understand some of the moves that were made and thought Josh winning over Paul was just a travesty of Big Brother justice.

First, I have no clue why Josh went to Final Two with Paul instead of Christmas. It worked for him, obviously, but that move made little sense to me. And then Paul's final speech was really, really bad. I'm not sure why he went with the long, fast-paced, too-detailed, and HEAVILY practiced speech at the end. He said so much that nothing sank in. He had an easy case to make to the jury and overcomplicated it to them and it came across really poorly. I'm not really sold on how much effect those final speeches actually have on finale night, since the jury has to have it's mind made up already since they are voting in 5 minutes. But nonetheless, I thought Paul's final speech was terrible...and possibly cost him the game.

And then Josh actually winning the game in the end was pretty disappointing. As a guy who's watched 18 of the 19 season pretty religiously, you want to see the person who played the best game win in the end. Paul was the person hands down. I thought Paul's best speech on finale night should have been something along the lines of A) "I've been a threat all season. Josh has ridden people's coattails all season.", B) "I'm the only vet in the house and was never on the block." and C) "I've manipulated everything that happened in this house."

Paul was the best player in the season. Josh was basically pitied all season from people. It's not a requirement that the best player in the season has to win, but they should. I thought the same thing when Ian beat Dan Ghessling in the finals of Season 14. For Josh to get the win in the end was a disappointing ending to a disappointing season. So, fitting I guess.

2. First Downs​Other than how great the Badgers played on Saturday, my main takeaway from watching the Wisconsin/BYU game on Saturday was how long it takes to watch a college football game. I don't know if it was because the game was on ABC and national television but the commercials seemed longer than normal and there seemed to be more commercials than I'm used to. Despite the game itself going at a very quick pace, it took forever to watch that game. So what I'm trying to say is college football games are too long.

One easy fix came to mind quickly. Why are we still stopping the clocks on first downs in college football?

They don't do it in the NFL and the game seems to be fine. Let's keep the clocks running when a team gets a first down, what am I missing here? Especially in college football where just a couple years ago the big offseason debate was teams getting too many plays due to the new spread offenses and up-tempo systems. I remember Beilema and Saban going back and forth on that topic a couple years ago and complaining about the number of plays that were in today's college football games.

Not stopping the clock after every first down would help with that issue and speed up the game at least a little bit. And I don't even know the reasoning behind stopping the clocks after a first down. It seems so arbitrary. Seems like a rule that needs to be updated.

3. KinnickApparently there are still 4,000 seats still available for Iowa's game against Penn State for this weekend. I'll hold off final judgement until the weekend but if this game doesn't sell out it's an outright embarrassment for the University of Iowa. Maybe fans will step up late in the week now that this information is out and buy tickets for the game and make it a sellout by Saturday.

But if not, that's an embarrassment. A Top 5 team coming to your place, to play a night game, on national television, and you won't sell out the stadium. Wow.

1. Badgers​An incredibly impressive win for the Badgers in Provo on Saturday, defeating BYU 40-6. That game followed the Badger Blueprint about as closely as you could optimistically expect. On offense, they ran the ball consistently almost the entire game which allowed them to throw the ball whenever they pleased. On defense, they limited the Cougars big plays, capitalized on turnovers, and strengthened near the red zone to keep BYU from ever finding the end zone. After two games at home against inferior opponents that were at times shaky, the Badgers stepped up in their real non-conference test of the season and passed with flying colors. Now they get their week off before stepping into conference play.

And does anybody have Jonahton Taylor's Heisman odds yet? Might be a good time to jump on those while they are still in triple digits. I got a feeling those numbers are going to start dropping soon. These Badgers aren't a Top 10 college football team of all time by any means, but it's easy to see a road where they are 8-0 or 9-0 heading into the last month of the season. If Taylor can produce in conference like he has produced in his first three non-conference games he's going to get some Heisman buzz late in the year. Now that's easier said than done, especially for a freshmen, but I think it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. But if Wisconsin can go 12-0 on the year heading into the Big 10 Championship game, they are going to warrant a Heisman candidate and Taylor should be that guy.

Other big Badgers takeaways:

Game of his career so far for Alex Hornibrook. 18-19, 256 yards, 4 TDs. A great showing on the road for the sophomore QB. More important than the stats were a couple of big time throws he made into tight windows yesterday, a progression in his game that I hadn't seen yet. Very encouraging.

Another second half where the Badgers gave up 0 points. Teams have yet to score a 2nd half point on the Badgers this season. I'd doubt that trend holds up the entire season but they'll be tough to beat this year if it does.

Seems like the Badgers got out of Provo injury free, at least in football-terms. No big injury concerns leaving the non-conference. I was very nervous when Fumagalli got rolled up on during the final real Badgers drive of the game and had to leave the field. But he came back that same drive and caught a touchdown pass so I'll assume he's OK. On to conference play!

These first four conference games for the Badgers now look completely different than I was expecting during the summer. Northwestern, @Nebraska, Purdue, Maryland. In July I was thinking Northwestern at home out of the game would be a nice test for Bucky seeing as Northwestern traditionally plays Wisconsin tough. And on the road against Nebraska could be one of their toughest tests of the season. Get by those two and coast through Purdue and Maryland at home. Now those first two games don't look nearly as tough as they did in July and the last two are setting up to be stiff challenges. And overall, the Big Ten is shaping up to be more competitive top-to-bottom than I was expecting these season. Could be a strong year for the conference with quality depth and quality teams towards the top.

2. HawkeyesNobody gives the Hawkeyes more backhanded compliments than I do, and this this going to sound like another one of those but I swear this is suppose to come off sincere.

Saturday's ​31-14 win over North Texas was a classic Kirk Ferentz win and it worries me.

Sure that game was ugly as all get-out and had to worry Iowa fans to no end. But that was a classic Kirk Ferentz, Iowa Hawkeye football victory. It wasn't pretty, it sent expletives out of nearly every Hawkeyes fans mouths, and if was downright embarrassing at times. But in the end, the Hawkeyes gritted out a win down the stretch and left the non-conference at 3-0.

Kirk has made many North Texas-like teams look like middle of the road Big Ten teams for years now. This is nothing new. I don't know if he is working through situations in the non-conference or over-rotating guys into the game to get them reps or what the deal is but making weak teams look better than they really are is par for the course for Kirk Ferentz led teams. And then they continue to do that all year in the Big Ten season and end up 8-4 or 9-3. It's almost like clockwork. So even though this Iowa team looks a little less talented than teams of years past, I'm afraid they could be sucking us in to thinking this is a down year before ending up 8-4 or 9-3.....which is exactly the scenario I laid out in my preseason prediction blog for the Hawkeyes.

I still say they go 6-6. I was watching the Badgers during that 2:30 kick so I only got to see the Iowa/North Texas game during time outs and half time but my goodness, that had to be a trainwreck for 3 quarters. Then you add some injury concerns on there apparently and that's not how you want to shut down your non-conference season with Penn State coming to town this week.

So the Hawks are 3-0 right now. Here's how I see the rest of their season:​Sure Losses: Penn State, Ohio State, @WisconsinProbable Losses: @Michigan State, MinnesotaToss-Up Games: @Northwestern, Purdue, @NebraskaProbable Wins: Illinois

So with the Illinois win, that puts them at 4 wins. Winning 2 of those 3 Toss Up Games to get to 6 wins. Which means to get to 7 wins they'd have to sweep those three Toss Up Games or pull an upset on one of those Probable Losses games.

I hope Iowa fans like Detroit in the winter because the Quick Lane bowl representatives will be keeping a strong eye on the Hawkeyes this season.

3. Cyclones​Had some other options on the docket to hit in this third spot but since we've already reviewed the Badgers and Hawkeyes games, may as well finish the Three Count off with a Cyclones review as well. I think there is only so much you can learn when you're a Power 5 school playing a MAC school on the road, but for what it's worth that's a big win for the Cyclones. They aren't at a point in their program where they can take wins for granted. So to go out to Akron and pick up a win is a big deal for Iowa State.

They had to battle a little adversity to pick up that win as well. That second quarter was an ugly quarter for the Cyclones. There were some question marks starting to perk up for Iowa State heading into halftime. Credit to Matt Campbell and the rest of the crew, they answered in the second half and played very well. Even with Iowa State not being able to close out that Iowa game, 2-1 leaving conference play is about what you would have expected from Iowa State before the season began. So not many complaints right now.

Now they get a bye week before Texas comes to town on a Thursday night in two weeks. That's not a bad time to play Texas. Should be a nationally televised night game, so you know Cyclone fans are going to Pack the Jack. Should be a fun atmosphere for that game and despite Texas' great showing this week against USC, you gotta think that could be a winnable for Iowa State. Or at least it's a game the Cyclones might have to win if they hope to make a bowl game. Let's break down the rest of the Cyclones' schedule similarly to the way we did for the Hawkeyes.

Currently sitting at 2-1. Which means they need to finish 4-5 in conference play to reach 6-6 and a bowl game.

You have to assume they lose their three games against ranked teams: Oklahoma, TCU, Oklahoma State.

But you would assume they can handle their business at home against Kansas. And at this point, I'm counting the Baylor game as a win until I see something that tells me different from Baylor. So that would be 4-4 so far.

I can see Iowa State winning one of those three road games. I can't see them getting two of them though. Which means a loss to Texas puts them behind the 8-ball all season in terms of bowl eligibility unless they pull off an upset somewhere along the way. A win though? Then the Cyclones are riding high.

A win against Texas puts them at 3-1 on the season. Can you imagine Cyclones fans being 3-1 to start the season? A FOOTBALL season?? They would lose their minds. Even going into Norman the following week isn't terrible since they'd have Kansas coming to Ames the following week. Take your beating in Norman, come back beat Kansas, and you're 4-2.

So then Iowa State is 4-2 to start the year, with their losses being to a Top 5 Oklahoma team and a game they gave away against Iowa. That would be a cause for optimism for a fan base desperately wanting to be optimistic about their football program for years. If you assume that Baylor game later in the season is one that should end up in the Win column, that just means Iowa State would have to find one more win on the schedule to actually be playing in December for a change.

I realize that's a lot of assumptions and predictions but still. Big game in Ames in a couple weeks when the Longhorns come to town.

1. HawkeyesSo I got criticized the other day by Hawkeye fans for not including Iowa's big win in the CyHawk series this weekend in Monday's Three Count. ​They were disappointed they didn't get any praise or accolades from the Three Count for their 44-41 win over Iowa State last week. I guess I just figured when you are playing a team that hasn't won over 3 games in a season for the past four years, that you are expected to win that game and act like you've been there before. But apparently Hawkeye fans feel otherwise so here we go.

Congratulations to the Iowa Hawkeyes on their big win last weekend in Ames. Hell of an exciting game. Not sure it was a great game, definitely not a well-played game by any measure, but it sure as hell was exciting. You never know what you're going to get in a rivalry game so Hawkeye fans surely were relieved to leave Ames on Saturday with a victory. A loss on Saturday would have really made their quest to make a bowl game this season interesting, as we've discussed previously here in the Three Count. This win provides them quite a bit of wiggle room later in the year to assure themselves a bowl bid later in the season.

Also had to be promising for Iowa fans that their team stepped up and got the job done in their toughest non-conference game in over 5-years. Sure, Iowa State has won 3, 3, 2, and 3 games their past four season and haven't won a bowl game since 2009; but with the potential this Cyclones team has this season this had to be considered Iowa's toughest test in the nonconference in quite some time. An embarrassing statement, yes...but still a reality. Other than Iowa State, here is Iowa's non-conference games the past 5 seasons.

Not exactly Murderers' Row by any means there. I'm not sure that's even House Arrests' Row. Also kind of negates some Hawkeyes' fans arguments that Iowa would schedule tougher non-conference games if they only had 8 Big Ten games instead of 9. Those 2014, 2013 and 2012 matchups aren't exactly must see TV. But that's a different debate for a different day. We are celebrating Iowa's huge win right now.

So I'd say going into this contest, this had to be the toughest matchup Kirk Ferentz has had in the nonconference in over 5 years. You could make an argument that going to Pittsburgh in 2014 was possibly tougher, or at least on the same level, but Pitt was 6-7 that year and not exactly a powerhouse in the ACC. I'd say an in-state rivalry game on the road against an up-and-coming squad would top that. And again, we are talking which nonconference game is tougher: Pittsburgh or Iowa State. Great work Kirk. Great work Gary.

So for a team that isn't used to getting challenged until conference play, I thought Iowa handled themselves pretty well, especially with a young quarterback still gathering experiences. Iowa responded to the Cyclones scoring a touchdown in their first drive by eventually taking control the game. They were up 21-10 in the third quarter. Then despite blowing that lead, they came back from a 31-21 deficit in the 4th quarter to force overtime and prevail in OT. That's not an ideal situation against a team with 12 wins over the past 4+ seasons but it did show some grit and toughness from the Hawkeyes which has to make their fans happy.

Hawks fans also have to be pleased with Stanley coming out of that contest and that was arguably their biggest question mark coming into the season. You're always looking to answer as many of those preseason question marks as you can in those early season games. And that was a big question mark Iowa is starting to get an answer to and it seems to be an answer they'll like for the next 3 years. So granted they were on the ropes and gave up 38 points in regulation to a Cyclones team averaging under 3 wins a season the past 4 years, they still managed to leave Ames with a W and had some high-spots themselves. For a team that's used to playing FCS schools and bottom of the barrel FBS schools, you take whatever you can get.

So congratulations Iowa fans on your big win. Hopefully you can keep that momentum up this weekend when you face your next big non-conference test......North Texas.

2. Black FridayIn other Big Ten news, the conference released their 2020 and 2021 conference football schedules yesterday. Now I fancy myself to be a fairly intelligent guy, but I'm not even going to attempt to figure out how the Big Ten determines those cross-divisional match-ups. Trying to find a pattern or a reasoning on how those cross-divisional pairings come about is a task all to itself.

I just want to talk through the big change in the divisional pairings in the Big Ten West. No more Minnesota-Wisconsin and Iowa-Nebraska match ups on the final week of the season. Which means no more border battle game between Iowa and Nebraska on Black Friday come 2020 and beyond. Seems like a waste.

One of the things that makes college sports feel special are the rivalries. Not that the rest of the nation really cared about Iowa-Nebraska or Minnesota-Wisconsin, but those games mattered in Big 10 land. Those games will still be played obviously, but having them on the final week of the season added a little bit more to those games.

Especially for Nebraska. Them losing their coveted Black Friday game initially seemed like a slap in the face of the Cornhuskers from the Big Ten offices. But now I'm reading that it was possibly Nebraska's preference. If that's the case, that seems like a real head-scratcher. Not that Nebraska playing football on Black Friday had the same prestige or history as the Lions/Cowboys playing on Thanksgiving or even Army/Navy playing on the final week of the season, but it was still a tradition. For a school that so desperately tries to cling to their tradition and glory years, this seems like a very odd move from Nebraska. Maybe it's a positive sign that they are willing to move forward from the '90s and start new traditions. Seems odd though and another step towards making Nebraska "just another football school" in the college football landscape.

3. Mario Kart​Alright, I know we've had to postpone this tournament twice already this summer but I think this is going to be the final date. If it doesn't work on this date we will probably just scrap it for the year and try it again next year. But I think it should work.

Saturday October, 14th

I don't have a time set yet. That will be determined based on the Iowa State kickoff that week. Ideally, the Iowa State game in Ames will be an 11:00 am kickoff and then we can have the tournament at 5:00 PM after that game. That will give people that want to go to the game and this tournament a chance to do both.

If the Cyclones game that day is not an 11:00 am kick than we may try to find a different time, but I'll keep everyone update on the start time as the date gets closer. The Hawkeyes are off that week I believe so no conflict there.

Start getting the N64s out and get to practicing. The green flags drop in a little over a month!

1. Ohio State​If there were any non-Penn State alums who were pushing for them to make the College Football Playoffs harder than I was last season, I don't think I remember them. While everyone else was just putting Ohio State into the Final Four despite not even making their conference championship game, I was on record saying you should actually have to earn your way in to the playoffs. Instead, somehow the prevailing thought across the nation and the media was that Ohio State was too talented not to make the CFB Playoffs.

Let's take a look at Ohio State's last five weeks of play:

*Squeak by Michigan at home in one of the ugliest games of the college football season last year.*Didn't play because they didn't make their conference championship*Got blown out 31-0 to Clemson in the College Football Playoffs Semifinals*Struggled with college football powerhouse Indiana for 2 1/2 quarters in Week 1 of 2017*Gets run off the field, at home, by Oklahoma this week 49-21

Now I get that the 2016 team is not the same as the 2017 team. People graduate each year and a new group of high school Seniors come to campus as Freshmen and are asked to contribute immediately. I get it. But it's not an entire different team either. There are a lot of carryovers though and it's not like those teams are night-and-day different.

That's a pretty good sample size from Ohio State.

Mark my words though, people will still give them the benefit of the doubt all year and put them in the College Football Playoff conversation again this year because of all their "talent". They are still ranked 8th and 9th in the AP and Coaches' Poll this week despite that loss. I'm not saying they should be completely out of the discussion all year, one-loss teams make the field all the time, but THE Ohio State Buckeyes will get an incredible amount of hype and consideration this year for that 4th spot despite their recent resume.

2. NFLWas it just me or was that a fairly disappointing opening Sunday to the NFL season? Just seemed like it fell flat to me. Now granted, a good chunk of that was my favorite team putting up the worst showing of the week with a 46-9 loss to the Rams, who aren't traditionally a football powerhouse. So I understand that most people didn't have that embarrassment added to their weekend but the rest of the Sunday felt pretty mundane.

The game of the week was probably that Chiefs/Patriots opener but that was played on Thursday night. Yesterday was a lot of uninspiring games and disappointing fantasy football performances. Seemed like a lot of low scores from fantasy studs yesterday which took away some excitement from the first week.

Then the Sunday night game of the week was kind of a downer last night with the Giants putting on an excruciatingly painful offensive showing last night without OBJ. Tough to get too invested in a game where one team has about 50 yards at half time and scores 3 points the entire game. And that was basically the same story in the other marquee game of the day, Seattle vs. Green Bay. A terrible offensive showing from both teams really but Seattle in particular. Just took some of the excitement out of that contest for me. I'm sure some people can enjoy a great defensive battle but not me in Week 1.

Here's to a better Week 2.

3. September 11thAnother anniversary today for the September 11th attacks on America in 2001. I know everyone has their own memories and recollections of that day. Where they were, how they heard about the attacks, what they did the rest of the day, and how they handled the rest of the week, year, decade, etc.

I'm not going to tell you my story because you have your own story about it and your own feelings and emotions to work through. And you'll read other stories today about that day or of people directly effected by that day which will be much better than mine, a Sophomore in high school in rural Iowa. No matter how many years pass since that day, there are always great stories put out about the people, the city, and the nation on September 11th.

But here is the clip I go to on YouTube every September 11th though to regain some perspective on those events. It's David Letterman's first show back on the air after the attacks. I've always been a Letterman guy and just love listening to him try to put his emotions into words on this day. Being in New York City, you can tell how much he was effected by those attacks but more importantly how moved he was by the people around him and around the country. For me, it just puts me back in that time frame each year.

Went split screens today for the Badgers game with the Iowa-Iowa State game also having an 11:00 am kick, so I missed some of the action today no doubt. But still, my top five takeaways from today's Badgers game.

Wisconsin 31, Florida Atlantic 14

1. Those Florida Atlantic helmets were god awful. Like literally the worst helmets I've ever seen a football program wear. Bright white helmets with a red outline of the state of Florida on one side. On the other side are large red numbers of each player, like Alabama but much, much worse. Here's a pic if you missed it. Just ugly. Florida is a weirdly shaped state to begin with and doesn't mesh on a helmet. Make the change Lane.

2. This just me talking as a guy who doesn't really know much about football and is probably forming an opinion based on the fact Wisconsin has a new, inexperienced Defensive Coordinator but it doesn't look like the Badgers are comfortable yet on the defensive side of the ball. They gave up a 63-yard pass touchdown pass in the first quarter when a defensive back just let a receiver run passed him thinking he had safety help over the top when he did not. And it often looks like linebackers are having a hard time finding their correct gaps; or on plays where I'm used to a seeing a Badger defender be in the right spot to shut a player down, they aren't there so far this year. Again, talking out of my ass here since I have very little X's and O's knowledge about football but the defense doesn't look as sharp as I'd like it. Hopefully it will come with time and experience.

3. I like what I'm seeing out of the offense though, for the most part. There were some ups and downs, just like last week, but overall I'm pleased with what I've seen from the unit as a whole so far. Failing to convert three times from the one-yard line was troubling, to say the least, and the turnovers were crushing today but Wisconsin seemed to get what they wanted most of the day on offense. Clean up the turnovers and that's a great offensive showing from the Badgers. Jonathon Taylor looks like he could be a stud for the next couple years at RB and the offensive line created many more running lanes today than they did against Utah State. Hornibrook is progressing nicely and as far as Wisconsin quarterbacks go, I've got quite a bit of confidence in him right now. I'd still like to see one of the receivers step up as Hornibrook's #1 option to take some eyes and coverage off of Fumagalli though. They have some options but need someone to step up consistently to be a threat. Of Wisconsin's 17 catches, Fumagalli had 8 of them. Having your Tight end catch almost 50% of your passes in a game is not ideal.

4. Going to be interesting to see how backfield carries get divided out the next couple of games. Between Bradrick Shaw who was out today, Chris James, and Jonathon Taylor someone is going to get the short end of that stick. They'll all get carries but there are only so many to go around. From what we've seen from Taylor the past two weeks, I think he's the feature back. Will be interesting if Coach Chryst sees it the same way and make the move to the freshman. I think he does, makes Taylor the primary back with Shaw as the second option and James is more of a third-down back. Will be interesting to see how that situation plays out. Great problem to have though at Running Back U.

5. Through two games against inferior opponents, it's still tough to tell what we have with this years' Badgers team. Next week at BYU should help answer many of those questions. I think it's a great test for Wisconsin. I don't think they are ready to play a Top 10 or Top 15 team yet this early in the year, but they do need a test. And a quality opponent in BYU on the road across two different time zones is definitely a test. If they are as sluggish as they were in the first half against Utah State or if they turn the ball over as frequently as they did today, a win in Provo is going to be tough to find. But it's also a team they should beat if they play well. Exactly what this team needs right now.

1. HawkeyesWe're going to get into some CyHawk talk and hopefully some Hawkeye bashing in the rest of the Three Count but need to give Iowa some credit for their efforts last Saturday. I'm sure most, if not all, of you reading this blog have seen their new tradition they've started at home games by now. It's great.​If not, here's a link to Scott Van Pelt explaining it. At the end of the first quarter, the entire stadium turns around and waves to the children in the newly constructed children's hospital just behind the stadium. Not only that, but apparently they are also incorporating Kid Captains for each game. I saw many photos online of children with Hawkeye players and coaches. And not just a couple, there were tons of Hawkeyes taking the time to greet the children and talk with them. Even Kirk Ferentz. It would be easy to just send a guy in a Herky mascot and a couple cheerleaders over to greet the children. To send that many coaches and players goes well above and beyond the call of duty.

​I hope I'm wrong but if I have to put my money on the line, I'm putting it on Kirk over Matt Campbell in 2017, even in Ames. I'm in "believe it when I see it" mode for the Cyclones this year. They've hyped me out. I can't take anymore "Sounding of the Sirens" or "Raising the Standard" or "Storms a Brewing" or whatever Matt Campbell's catch phrase for the week is until Iowa State starts winning some games consistently.

Hopefully that starts this week. This would be a huge step towards that goal. But I think Iowa State is closer to 4-8 than they are 6-6. And this is year 19 for Kirk. He doesn't have the greatest track record against the Cyclones but you know what you are getting out of a Ferentz coached team. He typically overachieves with his "middle of the pack" type teams like he has this season. I think Stanley turns the ball over a couple times in this game to keep it competitive all game but he makes a couple plays late in the game to ice it for the Hawkeyes.

I hope I'm wrong and the ISU student section is rushing the field during Sweet Caroline at the end of the game. It would be a big step toward 6-6 and a bowl birth for the Cyclones. It would also be a big step towards 6-6 for the Hawkeyes as well. But they have to show they are capable of that before I'm buying in.

3. NFLWith the NFL season officially underway now, I need to get my postseason predictions locked in. Need to get some redemption after my MLB preseason predictions predicted a Rangers vs. Mets World Series this year. Not sure how well that one is going to pan out.

Might have to start calling him Paul "Money" Chryst because Paul just executed the Floyd Mayweather game plan to perfection. Coach Chryst and the Badgers let their opponent throw their best punches at them early, weathered the storm, and then dominated the later rounds. Maybe not the most auspicious start for the 2017 football season but I'm going to trust Paul and his staff's game plan. One down, twelve to go.

Let's take a look at my top five takeaways from tonight's game in the Instant Analysis.

Wisconsin 59, Utah State 10​1. Not a great performance by the offensive line. I was expecting a dominating showing tonight but our front seven and they really struggled, particularly in that first half. Running lanes were hard to come by and Utah State was getting consistent pressure on Hornibrook in those first 30 mintues. Hopefully some more experience in the non-conference can get them the repetitions they need because the Badgers will have to rely on that unit during conference play.

2. That looked like I was watching the Iowa Hawkeyes receiving core out there at times tonight. Dropped passes, little separation, and no threat of a big play. It's early, but the Badgers will need to find a player or two to step up and become a reliable threat. If not, even for as good as Fumagalli is defenses are going to be able to key in on him too much. Wisconsin needs to find some guys to give Fumagalli some space to operate.

3. I had forgotten how much I miss Rafael Gaglianone. I hope he can stay healthy for the entire season this year. When he lines up for a kick I'm confident the kick is going to go in and I'm also excited to see if he does any dance moves or celebrations after it goes in. So basically the best two traits you can ask for from your kicker.

4. Impressive debut for Jonathon Taylor. Probably not the wisest thing to get too carried away after one game against a poor Mountain West team, but did Running Back U just find their next great running back?

5. We saw A LOT of the Jet Sweep tonight and I liked it. It seemed like that Wisconsin staple was slow to make the transition at times the past couple season into Coach Chryst's playbook. It was there, but not often featured. We got a lot of it tonight and seemed to be a focal point of the offense. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many Badgers fans that don't love the Jet Sweep. The offense seems to click when it gets mixed in and it provides the offense with a 'big-play' potential that it desperately lacks at times.

1. BadgersWe looked at the Cyclones on Tuesday. And the Hawkeyes on Thursday. Figured we better end the week by previewing a team that will actually finish the season over .500.

I have my hopes up for the Badgers this year. It seems like its one of those years where everything aligns. Returning players, talent, and a soft B1G schedule. The opportunity is there for the Badgers to have a special season in Madison.

A couple preseason injuries is a slight concern for the Badgers. You never expect to go through an entire season with no injuries but it's especially frustrating for those injuries to come before the season even begins. Wisconsin just released news last week that linebacker Zack Braun will be out for the season with a foot injury. And this is after learning that the heart of their defense, another linebacker Jack Cichy, will also be out for the season. Wisconsin was going to be deep at the linebacker position this season so they may be able to overcome these but this is an early troubling trend for the Badgers.

But despite that, the cards are still on the table for Wisconsin to make some noise this football season. I wrote a blog 99 days ago looking at their schedule for the year and looking for a potential loss. It's tough to find.

And I'll stand by that prediction I made three months ago. I think the Badgers go 11-1 and make the Big Ten Championship game. It won't be easy for the Badgers as they'll have five to six game that will be tight in the fourth quarter. There's a lot of potential wins on the schedule but they'll have to be earned.

I don't know who that loss will come from though. There will be a game where the offense doesn't click. It will be an ugly, ugly football game. And the Badgers will lose like 20-17. I'm not sure where it comes from though. Maybe on the road at BYU or Nebraska. Or home against Northwestern or Michigan. Or in their rivalry game against Minnesota. Who knows.

I hope I'm wrong and the Badgers roll into Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship undefeated. Feels like 11-1 though.

2. CubsAs much as I hate to admit it, the Cubs are starting to get some of that swagger back. They might have had it for about a month or so now but it seems like now they are starting to get some breathing room in their playoff race.

They are currently on a four game win streak, 14-6 in their last 20 games, and up 3.5 games over Milwaukee in the division. As a Rangers fan, I've seen my team lose the division being up 3 games with 3 games to play....so it's not like the Cubs are a lock for the playoffs by any means but you have to like their chances. Especially with the way the first couple months of the season went for Chicago.

And those may have been the key months to the Cubs season. They struggled but no one in that NL Central division was really able to capitalize on it. You always hear that it's tough to repeat as champions. Teams give you their best shot and it's emotionally hard to bounce back and reinvest that following season. I think the Cubs went through a little bit of that in the first half of the season.

But they were able to still stay in the race since no other team created separation while the Cubs struggled. While they were getting used to and over that "Championship Hangover" no one in the Central really made them pay for it. Had the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Rockies, or Nationals been in the Centra this year, I'm not sure if they Cubs are able to bounce back this well. But with the Brewers just playing a little over .500 ball themselves most of the year, it gave the Cubs some life.

The Cubs have capitalized from that greatly. The Cubs were able to hang around, hang around, hang around most of the year until they hit their stride. And it feels like they are almost full stride right now in Chicago. Should be a dangerous team the next two months. A quality team with the confidence of a World Series Championship in their back pocket.

​I'm already mentally preparing myself for all the Cubs tweets we could see on Twitter for the next 60 days.

3. Home ImprovementWhy is Home Improvement not a show that has it's reruns played on TV?

It's been bothering me the past couple years that for as good of a show as Home Improvement was it's never shown on reruns anymore. You just can't find it on anywhere. Or if you can someone please let me know. Seems like a great show for a station to pick up and show reruns of. If you're aimlessly flipping through the channels for something to watch and you see Tim or Al or Wilson or Heidi on the screen, are you really going to keep flipping? It's a comedy that will get you a couple chuckles before the next commercial break. A quick thirty minute show with laughs and great characters, seems like a perfect show for reruns.

Maybe I'm overestimating other people's love of Home Improvement but this seems like a lost opportunity for some station.

1. Hawkeyes​Continuing on with some of our college football preseason predictions. We hit the Iowa State Cyclones on Tuesday, time for the Iowa Hawkeyes today.

Let's just get the initial prediction out of the way. I think the Hawkeyes are staring a 6-6 season right in the face this year. Vegas has their Over/Under at 6.5 wins for the year and I'd take the Under. Reduced talent from previous seasons, not as much experience returning as they typically do, a new QB under center, and a difficult schedule. Looks like a .500 team to me. Put me down for 6-6 in Iowa City.

However, as a self-proclaimed Hawkeye-hater, this season does scare me a little bit. These are the teams and season where Kirk Ferentz excels at, in my opinion. I know depending on the year, Kirk isn't always the most popular man in Iowa City but Kirk has a way of taking those teams you don't expect much from and getting a lot out of them. I think they go 6-6 but there is a scenario where they exceed expectations and go 8-4 or even 9-3. And that's when Iowa fans are their most obnoxious, when they exceed expectations. When they are better than they thought they would be at the beginning of the season and start to feel really good about themselves. That "big brother" complex starts to burst out of them. They start bragging left and right, and you can almost feel their chests starting to puff out even just interacting with them on Twitter. I just hate it.

So while I think they go 6-6, you can talk your way into thinking they'll have a good season still in 2017. I mean we know their nonconference schedule historically is anything but difficult, so you could easily picture them going 3-0 out of the gate. If they just take care of their winnable home games (Illinois, Minnesota, Purdue) that gets them to 6 wins. Then you get to their 3 difficult but winnable road games (Northwestern, Michigan State, Nebraska). Feels like Kirk can get at least 1 of those most seasons and quite possibly 2 if they overachieve. There are your 8 wins for the year.

And as much as I hate to admit it, Iowa also has a tendency to play well at Wisconsin. So even though that's a game they will come into as double-digit underdogs, likely with Wisconsin coming in undefeated, that game at Camp Randall could be winnable as well. That could be their 9th win.

And even though they'll be significant underdogs again, they do have Ohio State and Penn State at home. So even if those other games don't go the Hawks way, maybe they can sneak out a big home win in either of those games. You never know.

But.....it could go south in Iowa City in a hurry as well.

I can just as easily see a season where Iowa goes 2-1 in the nonconference, drops the first two conference games (Penn St, @ Michigan St), before picking up a win against Illinois. So that's 3-3 to start the year. Then they'll have a 4-game stretch where they go @Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio State, @Wisconsin. It's not too hard to imagine them going 0-4 in that stretch. Now you are looking at 3-7, no bowl games, the "Fire Kirk" crowd back in full force, and some heat on his son in his first year as Offensive Coordinator. Or as I like to call it, my dream scenario.

Even going through that stretch 1-3 could put them at 4-6 through 10 games and needing to win out for a 6-6 season and a bowl birth. You'd think they get the home game against Purdue but that would leave a trip to Lincoln on Black Friday with a bowl birth on the line. Not an easy trip but that would make for some exciting television. Or at least as exciting as a Nebraska/Iowa football game not played in the '90s could be.

That's the scenario I see much more likely in play this year, the 6-6 season with drama in Iowa City.

2. JJ Watt​Even as a Wisconsin fan, for the past 2-3 years I've been on the "JJ Watt is kind of a douche" side of the fence. JJ Watt is really, really good at football but he's also really, really into JJ Watt. JJ Watt loves him some JJ Watt. Just gets to be a little too much at times.

But what he's doing right now in Houston is really great. If you haven't seen anything about it I think you could just catch up using his Twitter page. He's trying to raise money to help with the flood relief efforts there in Houston which looks like it will take years to fix. I don't know what his actual goal was to start but he's well past that. I think I read his initial goal was $200,000 but I bet he was hoping for more. As of this morning, his efforts have reached over $8.5 million.

Great to see an athlete use their platform for a positive impact on a community, especially a community going through such a catastrophe. I know there are thousands of people that are donating to JJ Watt's fund as well that go unnoticed but Watt had to take the initiative to start the fund and be a figurehead for people to be able to donate towards. I'm sure there are many people that donated to the Houston relief through Watt's fund that probably would not have donated through a Red Cross or some other means. Then once this campaign starts picking up publicity, it makes it easier for other people and other corporations to donate as well.

So great effort out of JJ Watt. For a guy who is often in the news for some cringe-worthy things in my opinion, this is a great act out of him.

3. License PlatesSomething that really bothers me that shouldn't are these specialized license plates. Specifically the ones promoting a college or university. We see them all the time in Iowa, either the yellow and black for the Hawkeyes or the yellow and red for the Cyclones. Sure there are some other Grand Views, or Coes, or Centrals, or other smaller schools out and about with license plates as well but primarily its Iowa and Iowa State plates I see while driving.

And it's not the plates themselves that bother me, I think I'll probably even get one myself one day, but it's the dumb letter/number combinations people choose to put on it. Just drives me absolutely crazy. You spend extra money to get a specialized plate and then you put a crappy phrase or saying on it.

Here's the worst: Someone's three initials, 4, and then either ISU or UI. And maybe it's just because I live 10 minutes from Ames but I see that all the time on Iowa State plates. ADB4ISU or TMJ4ISU or BOB4ISU. You get the picture.

I just don't get how you spend money on extra plates, plates that are designed to stick out and draw attention to themselves, and then the message you send is RJT4ISU.

Oh, the guy with Iowa State license plates is "for ISU"? You don't say.

I got the message that the person in this car likes Iowa State from the Iowa State plates, you don't need to tell me again that you are for Iowa State with your wording. Come up with something else.

But come up with something simple. I also hate when I see plates with you can't understand or the spelling is crazy just to make it fit. I realize you only get 7 characters in Iowa to work with and most of the good options are probably already taken but if your license plate looks ridiculous I hate it as well. Like using a 1 for an "i" because that's already taken. Or i see variations of Hilton Magic spelled out with an MGK occasionally. Spot it. Either spell it correctly or come up with something new. It makes you look illiterate.

1. Cyclones​With college football season officially getting into high gear this week in Week 1, it's time for some predictions here at The 808. Today we'll start with the home state Cyclones.

I got the Cyclones going 4-8 this year and finishing 8th in the Big 12.

I know the state of Iowa is filled with hope and optimism right now about the Cyclones football program and the direction Matt Campbell has the program heading. I just need to see something on the field though before I start clearing out my December schedule trying to plan a bowl game vacation. I'd love it if Iowa State could finally get back to at least 6-6 and playing in the postseason but I don't think it's this year.

I need to see something on the field consistently before I make that leap of faith. I'm tired of Iowa State winning the offseason and then getting crushed in the actual football season. Seems like Coach Campbell puts out a hype video on social media more often than most people go to the bathroom. I've said it before but Iowa State football's motto may as well be "Win the Offseason" because that seems like their main goal right now. I want to see the Cyclones actually win the Regular Season for a change. Once I see that I'll change my tune but until then, I think the Cyclones are still at least a year away.

2. RangersMan my Texas Rangers took a beating on social media yesterday, and unfairly so in my eyes. Granted I'm a Texas Rangers fan so my views are probably biased but I thought they took it on the chin yesterday for no reason. And this speaks to the power of social media in today's culture and being able to get your message out promptly and efficiently.

So the background of the story is here. Texas is suppose to play the Astros the next three days in Houston. Obviously due to the dramatic flooding in Houston that's not a possibility right now. So the Rangers and Astros were working to find alternative solutions. The Astros proposal was to switch their home and home with the Rangers. Switch these games to Arlington and play the Rangers' home series against the Astros later in the season in Houston. The Rangers solution was to play the games the next three days at any MLB stadium they could find, their own included, and donate the gate and money to the Astros to compensate for their home games.

The Astros were upset that the Rangers did not want to take them up on their proposal and went on Twitter to bash the Rangers. Tweets were retweeted and picked up in the national media and the immediate general consensus seemed to be that the Rangers were being selfish pricks and insensitive to the trauma occurring right now in Houston. Even the ESPN article I linked above has titled "Astros to play 'home' series in Tropicana Field; Rangers criticized for declining series swap".

Again, as a Rangers fan I'm sure I'm biased here but the Rangers' reasoning was sound in my eyes. From a fan's perspective, people who bought tickets for a mid-September games now had 24 hours to figure out their schedules for new home games. The bigger issue was swapping out a late season home series, which could put Texas at a larger competitive disadvantage down the stretch when they could be playing to make the playoffs.

If Texas would have went with Houston's proposal, it would have given them a 12-game road trip to basically end the season. That's a very tough ask for a team when all of those game could potentially have huge playoff implications. I realize concessions have to be made when the nation is facing a catastrophe of this proportion, and the Rangers were open to making concessions, but that is a reasonable place to put your foot down at in my opinion.

The Astros did not like that the Rangers didn't agree to their proposal, got upset, and started the Rangers bashing on social media. The Astros apparently got their message out to the public first, or at least more efficiently, and the Rangers backlash picked up steam last night. Not sure it was fair but in our 140-character, short-attention span media age it worked.

3. RAWI love the direction WWE is going right now post-Summer Slam, specifically on the RAW side. I was disappointed in Summer Slam itself but WWE seems to be pushing on the accelerator leaving it's second biggest PPV of the year and RAW has been outstanding because of it.

In the past, I've been critical of WWE for stretching storylines and feuds out for too long and "saving" moments for too long or pushing everything towards WrestleMania season. Then by that time, all the heat WWE had built up for those storylines has simmered or the audience has waited so long for it that it has become stale again. It's almost like WWE saves things and builds things up so much for WrestleMania that the other 51 weeks of the year suffer at times.

Not right now though.

WWE is aggressively marching towards their next PPV of No Mercy with two legitimately huge main events. WWE likes to throw out the term "WrestleMania worthy" a lot but these two matches could actually headline a WrestleMania. WWE is going to give us Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman for the WWE Universal Championship and the long awaited first encounter of John Cena vs. Roman Reigns.

That Cena/Reigns pairing has been a WrestleMania rumored match for the past couple years so to see it come at No Mercy is both surprising and exciting. It could easily just be the first step in their road to a match at WrestleMania this year but it's great nonetheless. I love WWE pushing their chips to the middle right now and giving us the best product they can produce, and figuring the rest out later. I've been saying for the past year plus that the roster is too loaded right now to "save" things.

That Cena/Reigns promo last night was a great example of throwing your best work out their and going from there. That interaction between those two last night was about everything you'd hope it would be for their first real face-to-face with each other. If WWE can build off of that now and keep their foot on the pedal, RAW is going to greatly benefit from it and hopefully continue to crescendo to Survivor Series and into the Royal Rumble.

1. CavaliersSo we broke down part of the Cavs-Celtics trade yesterday and I actually gave Boston some love. After hating on them for the entire year, I really thought that was a great trade for them that made them both better in the present terms and set them up well for the future. A nice pickup for the C's.​

I actually thinks its a great move for the Cavaliers as well. Maybe even a better move for them than it was for Boston. The thing with Boston is they were probably solid for next year and years to come prior to the trade. I'm not sure you can say the same for Cleveland.

I think I am to the point now where I would actually be surprised if LeBron stays in Cleveland after next season. And I'd be SHOCKED if he plays his next 5 years in Cleveland. It feels like he is out the door already. So under the umbrella that this is probably James' last year in Cleveland, this was a great move for the Cavs.

For next season, it probably makes them a little bit better. Not much but at least a little. The downgrade from Kyrie to Isaiah isn't terribly steep, it's not like Kyrie was a lockdown defender by any means, and they also add some depth in Jae Crowder. They at least don't drop off in LeBron's potentially final year.

That added depth in Crowder and the Brooklyn pick also give them some roster flexibility for this upcoming season as well. Before Kyrie demanded a trade, the Cavs were kind of hamstrung in what they were capable of doing. Now they have some options. Some combination now of the Brooklyn pick, Love, Crowder, or Thompson could bring in a big name to play with LeBron and Thomas. I would be surprised if this is the last deal Cleveland made before the playoffs next year.

And most importantly, it at least gives the Cavs some type of options if LeBron leaves next year, or even the following year. Even if Kyrie wouldn't have demanded an immediate trade this season I don't think he was staying around in Ohio if LeBron bolted. So that would have meant Cleveland would more than likely be out their best two players in a year or two.

Now they at least have some hope. Maybe they can convince Isaiah Thomas to sign in Cleveland. I talked yesterday about how I think it's risky to sign him to a long-term deal but if you are Cleveland that's probably a great guy to take a chance on. If LeBron wasn't from Ohio, he isn't signing there. And what other free agents are signing on a LeBron-less Cavs team? I can't think many....so maybe they could convince IT to resign after playing there a couple years.

And even if all that fails, maybe that Brooklyn pick turns into something and you rebuild through the draft. I'm not sure Brooklyn will be a Bottom 3 team but they have really struggled recently so you can't expect that large of a turn-around.

So assuming the Kyrie situation was unmanageable and he had to be traded before the season started, that's a pretty good haul for Cleveland as well.

2. Reputation​The wait is finally over!!!

After waiting and waiting for years, we are finally going to get a new Taylor Swift CD. I was starting to think this day was never going to come. So excited for this. I don't know much information on it yet. Really all the information I know is from her tweet. But that's enough info for me.

The album drops on November 10th which means it immediately goes on my 2017 Christmas list. And then we even get the first single on the album debuting tomorrow. I've said it for years but "Taylor Swift is The Beatles of our generation". Just a once in a generational talent.

​Thanks Taylor.

3. Feeny ModeSo we are officially back to school at North Polk. Students came back for their first day yesterday. This puts me in the middle of my 8th year as a teacher now. This year started a little differently than any of my other years started.

We have a new principal this year at North Polk and to welcome the kids to the building she thought our staff should do a welcome back music video. Here ended up being the result:

1. Celtics​What a huge trade last night in the NBA. Forget about who the "winners" and "losers" were in this trade, we'll get to that later, but just think about strange that trade was. The two best teams in the Eastern Conference just trading star players back and forth to one another. You could probably even make the case that it's the only two real teams in the Eastern Conference with a chance to go to the Finals next season. Sure someone could raise up the ranks in the next 7 months but from where we stand right now, it's hard to imagine another team rising to that level. I'd say there's about a 90% chance that either the Celtics eliminate the Cavs in the playoffs next year or vice versa. And they just made a massive trade with each other......in late August. It's absurd.

Is this the rare "win/win" trade for both teams? Possibly. I love the trade a lot more for the Celtics than I do for the Cavs but it's still a pretty good trade for Cleveland as well.

For the Celtics, this is a great trade. I was never sold on them last season, largely in part to Isaiah Thomas being their best player. I just can't see a 5'9" point guard being a franchise player. I always thought that put a ceiling on their potential, especially when they reached the playoffs.

Now without him and with Kyrie in the mix at point guard, they could be dangerous. We've seen how he can play in big playoff moments. Now we just need to see how he can play in those playoffs with LeBron on his team. If he can be close to where he's been the past three seasons, the Celtics are going to be tough.

And I also don't mind them giving up the #1 Brooklyn pick either to get Kyrie. The Celtics already have enough young players they are going to have to develop. Another young pick to develop could stunt the growth of all their young players because there are only so many minutes to give out, so many sets designed to get people shots, and only one ball to score. Now Boston can strictly focus on developing Tatum and Brown while using that #1 draft pick asset to gain a top star in Irving.

And probably most importantly, this trade gave them an out from having to sign Thomas to a long-term deal. He was so beloved in Boston and coming up on contract negotiations. I just can't see signing a 5'9" point guard with injury concerns to a franchise type deal. Maybe in Major League Baseball where you can bust on a contract and still absorb it. See Boston's counterpart MLB team the Red Sox for proof of that. But in the NBA, if you throw big money out at a player and they don't play at that level, you are in trouble.

So Boston was eventually going to get to a sticky situation with Thomas' contract negotiations. This allows them get a star player in return for Thomas that will appease the fan base and not have to make that big decision on Thomas' future when the time comes.

And him in Cleveland might actually make a little more sense. Which we'll dive into during tomorrow's Three Count.

2. Jon Jones​Let's just book it right now: Jon Jones vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34.

It probably won't be as large of payday was it would have been in the UFC ring had Jones not gotten busted for steroids last night, but it can still happen. And actually, it could end up better.

Vince McMahon signs Jon Jones to a WWE contract with the sole purpose of an MMA fight with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.

They could do a mini-press tour like the one McGregor and Mayweather did for their fight this weekend, except all the interaction between Jones and Lesnar could happen on Monday Night RAW leading into WrestleMania. UFC is at it's best when they take WWE-like promotional steps and characters, this would blend it in perfectly.

And then you promote the fight at WrestleMania as an actually MMA fight. No scripting, no storylines, no predetermined finish. Just let them go fight like they normally would inside the octagon. It would just be under the WWE umbrella and not the UFC umbrella. The ultimate coup for Vince McMahon.

WWE still has their drug-testing policy it can enforce on both guys. So you wouldn't have to worry about steroid usage. And if they did use, we'd know it after the fact just like we have seen in the UFC.

This is a huge opportunity for WWE. I'm not sure if it can work logistically or financially but you can bet your ass Vince McMahon is looking into as we speak.

3. $15 Teacher PoolFirst day back at school with students for me today. Day 1 of 180. So thought we'd try something different to kick off the school year. I always love those "You have $15 to spend...." things on the internet, so we constructed a school faculty version of it to start your imaginary school.

So imagine you are a high school superintendent. You have $15 to spend to get 5 people on staff as your building's core leaders. You must choose from each column and cannot interview anyone not on shown on the board because they are all already under contract at other schools.

So spend your money wisely and construct your best imaginary high school. Share in the Comments section who chose, or this is also tweeted out on our Twitter account: @808thoughts. Go to the tweet and share who you picked. Retweet it for us to if you can to see if we can get this to spread!

The "Best of Des Moines" screenings and awards presentation were last Thursday night. One Genome Short Productions was not able to repeat as Best Picture but Re:Pete was able to win Audience Choice, Best Writing, and Best Sound Design. So all-in-all a pretty solid showing.

I'll do a larger write up on my overall experience during my first ever 48 Hour Film Project at a later date but for now, here was our submission for this year's festival. Re:Pete.

2. Cooking At The 808And speaking of high-quality video content......

We put out another episode of Cooking At The 808 this morning. We had a Summer Slam party at our house last night and the Stromboli is always a hit at those gatherings. So I made a pair for the event last night and made it into an episode. That was Episode Five so we are officially halfway through the series.

3. Summer SlamAnd speaking of Summer Slam....

I was disappointed in the overall show last night. The main event was outstanding. Really a lot of fun, which is when wrestling is at its best. I don't need to see a four and a half star classic but I want to have fun while I watch professional wrestling. And that main event was fun.

And a majority of the other matches were good....but I was still disappointed. It just never felt like the second biggest PPV of the year to me. Other than being 4 hours long with a two hour pre-show and 13 total matches, it really didn't feel much different than any other PPV.

So maybe my expectations were too high going in but WWE does basically promote SummerSlam as a WrestleMania-lite like show in the summer. I thought we'd see more twists and turns and surprises. We didn't even get a Summer Slam stage set up. I was the same set up they have for RAW, SmackDown, and every other PPV. I guess I was just hoping Summer Slam would have a different feel. The only thing that felt different from any other PPV was this one was longer.

So I think it would have been a great PPV if it was a BackLash, or a Battleground, or even a Survivor Series. I left the night a little disappointed though since it was a SummerSlam.